Can You Feel It?

Yesterday, we had one helluva thunderstorm roll through here. It poured, then stopped, then the lightening came. The lightening was impressive, we had several *flash* CRACK back to back, really really close. The ones that make you physically cringe. Then it poured again. I love a good thunderstorm, we haven’t had as many around here the past few years as we normally do.

We usually get thunderstorms in May and June. This year, not a thunderstorm was to be had in those months. Well, not like usual, anyway.

It is hot as hell and humid outside, much like it normally is this time of year. We’ve been spoiled this year by the cool summer. It has been divine! I’m not at all complaining, believe me….

The interesting think is that through all the heat and humidity….can’t you just feel autumn? Sort of sneaking up on us all, unawares? I planted several fall crops today: peas, the last of the beets (well, I accidently dumped the packet out while I was doing that, too, so I may have a 2”x2” plot of beets this year), turnips, spinach. And the pumpkins are turning orange. And the winter squash are starting to have their stems harden.

And the really noisy insects are out at night. What are those things? You almost can’t hear someone standing right next to you! I call August the Noisy Night Month, seriously.

And you know it didn’t feel like autumn when I had sweat dripping from the end of my nose earlier today, but something clicked after I got to work and it said in a small, barely audible whisper…

….autumn’s coming…..

Weekly Update 5 13 2009

No pictures, just words this time.

The re-tagging project is finished.

I took a half day Wednesday so I could work on the last of the new beds: got two beds done and planted nine peppers and three tomatoes. Four beds to go. I’m down to 16 tomatoes and only four peppers that need homes.

And the squash. Melons. Okra. Oh, and the sweet potato slips that haven’t even arrived yet. Sweet potatoes are going on a terrace, nine tomatoes are going in hangers, so I THINK we’ll have enough space. I think. Fingers crossed.

Broccoli has broccled, but it looks weird so I don’t know if a cold or heat wave has gotten to it or not. Lettuce (heading) is doing beautifully, some were large enough that I had to replace the milk jug cloches with row cover.

The only things I’ve been harvesting is asparagus and spinach. I picked from the new asparagus bed for 2 weeks this year because they were so huge. I’m letting them branch out now, though. Spinach I’ve been picking at a bit, the babies are growing very quickly so I hope to have an actual meal from them this week.

The wee itty bitty fringy carrot and parsnip leaves are finally making an appearance. I see little baby leaf lettuces coming up, and the radishes are growing fast.

Peanuts are planted, and I went to look at them yesterday and it looked like someone had bitten them off. I took a closer look. No, there is new growth at the top, and the ‘branches’ have taken a nose-dive for the ground, which is what threw me. It just looked so strange as most things reach for the sun. Peanut branches dive. And YES, I DO KNOW that peanuts grow underground. I have known this since I was a child, as my father is from Atlanta. My husband felt the need to explain this to me yesterday, though, which earned him a wifely glare. Ahem.

In two weeks we are going to Virginia to visit a friend, and the three of us are going to be visiting Edible Landscapes, a nursery that specializes in, you guessed it, trees and bushes that produce food. We are going to pick up a few things, we are thinking about a couple Hazelnuts (aka Filberts; you need two to pollinate) and possibly one of the varieties of Trifoliate Orange, which is hardy in our area {insert shock and awe}.

In other news, I have dug and separated the saffron crocus. I planted 8 a couple years ago, and I must have dug 10 times that many. Several friends and coworkers have received some and I had plenty to put about 10 different places around the house.

And finally, there may be a guest post by the Garden Ninja sometime. Possibly. Not sure, but worth mentioning.

So, what do you do with the….Spinach?

Those of you who’ve cooked with fresh spinach probably all know one thing above all else: it doesn’t go far. You go to the grocery store, buy what looks like a huge bunch of beautiful sturdy green leaves. Then you get home and start steaming it up and you’re left with something that would fit in a thimble. It’s amazing, where does it all go?

So I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from my small spinach patch. No, seriously. My veggie patch this year is about 2/3 test garden. I’m trying many different things to see what grows well and how things do for me here. Probably wasn’t a great year to do this what with all the cold and rain, but nonetheless this was my plan, and I’ll probably do it again next year to add data to this, the Year of Clammy Sogginess.

So, spinach. Matt and I had gone to Target the day before and found these nice metal mesh baskets that seemed perfect for veggie collecting because you can spray the veggies in the basket or dunk the basket in water to rinse things off instead of doing things by hand one at a time. Great purchase, we bought 4. They were on clearance. So I stuffed all the spinach root-down into the basket and carried it back down to the house, then placed it in a tub with an inch or so of water in it until I could get to it (after breakfast). This kept the roots wet and the leaves from wilting.

Then, I took a large pot and put it on the stove. I rinsed the leaves and tore them off the stems and put them in the pot. Once the pot was about 2/3 full, I added about a half cup of water and turned the burner on high. I stirred them around until they were pretty well wilted, then I turned off the heat, spooned the cooked spinach into a bowl to cool, and started adding new leaves to the pot.

It took about an hour and three potfulls. I will also mention that most of the leaves had bug munchies on them. I am not as squeamish as most people are about bugs and bug munchies. Did some tiny insects get into the pot with my spinach? Probably. Do I care? Honestly, not really. The food we eat, the flour or sugar we buy, it all has insect or insect poo in it. They can’t get it out. There are actually guidelines with the FDA on how many insects and rodent hairs are allowed in your food (check out this one for chocolate). In the long run, my spinach was checked over leaf for leaf. Do you think Dole can really say that? And it doesn’t have anything sprayed on it, which means a lot to me, too.

Once the spinach was cool, I did two things with it. First, I filled up an ice tray. What? Yes, an ice tray. Matt took one look and said “Eeewwww! Spinach ice cubes!! A kids worst nightmare.” But they’re great for recipes, adding to scrambled eggs or a dip. I can pull out a cube or two and leave the rest. I don't know why the picture is so dark.

The rest I just put in a ziplock bag and froze. After the ice tray there was only enough there for one meal for the two of us, but still I’m happy with that. I know now that I can grow nice spinach, and I already have seeds to plant for the fall crop. So all in all the spinach test was worthwhile.

Weekly Veggie Patch Update 5/26/08

Clear weather the past few days, finally. It’s heating up, too, which should make the tomatoes and peppers happy. I have had a lot to do and no time to do it due to the weather, so OF COURSE it clears and warms up….the weekend I have to work. And not feel well, so I got one whole hour of work done all of Saturday.

I pulled my first radish this week, still a little small but I had to do something to make me feel like this was all worth it. And the little radish was perfect and round and dark pink and had a real bite to it. I’ve pulled more since, maybe about a quarter of what’s there. I’m seeing few carrots, though. A bit bummed about that. And I have no idea if and parsnips are coming up or not because I don't know what they look like.

I did my annual herb-shopping trip to Ashcombe’s on Wednesday morning. I had to drop Matt off at Gettysburg so he could pick up his new work van (at 7:15 A-freaking-M), and figured, well I’m halfway to Ashcombe’s I might as well just go. So I did, got there just before they opened at 8 and wandered with my cappuccino and looked at roses outside until they actually opened the doors.

I grabbed up 3 basils, 3 thymes, a culinary sage, a white (smudging) sage, 2 bok choys, 2 flat-leaf parsley, 2 oreganos, 2 borage (for the veggie patch, to bring in bees), a patchouli, a marjoram, and 1 other thing that I can’t remember now for the life of me. I also picked up two huge bunches of asparagus crowns 50% off, 2 African violet pots, a pack of turnip green seeds for a coworker, some strawberries, and 3 coleus. I had wanted to get some lemon grass, dill, and other basils but they didn’t have them out.

I planted the bok choys and the borages in the veggie patch. I also planted more bush and pole beans. The spinach bed needs weeded badly. Something (birds, I think) ate 2 out of 3 of the melon seedlings, so I replanted them and put some floating row cover over them. Kale and heading lettuce is doing well. I think one, maybe both, of the peppers I started from seed may bite it. If so, I can use that space for more bush beans.

But, I did get most of the mounds in place for the squash and got them planted after I got home from work on Sunday. Pumpkins, too. Matt is going to dig two trenches for me so I can plant the asparagus. I can also plant some things down the middle of the rows for a few years, like beets or onions, so that’s good.